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Book Launch Event & Film Screening: The Politics of Compassion (book) and Chauka Please Tell Us the Time (film)

The author, Dr Ala Sirriyeh (Sociology, Liverpool), will be joined by Dr Arshad Isakjee (Geography, Liverpool) to discuss the key findings from the book and their relevance to contemporary immigration debates. This will be followed by a screening of ChaukaPlease Tell Us the Time (2017) (Directors –Behrouz Boochaniand ArashKamaliSarvestani)

The Politics of Compassion examines the discourse of compassion in contemporary political debates about ‘undesired immigrants’. ‘Compassion’ has been called for and enacted by those who resist punitive immigration policies, but it has also been evoked by those seeking to enforce these policies. Through the case studies of the UK’s response to the refugee crisis in Europe; Australia’s offshore detention of refugees in Nauru and Papua New Guinea; and undocumented immigrant youth activism in the US, this book explores the relationship between compassion and other emotions in asylum and immigration policy discourses. It examines how this is manifested in practices of ‘compassionate refusals’ (justifying deterrence through compassion), ‘compassionate resistance’ (resistance to immigration controls), and ‘withholding compassion’ (excluding people from recognition as deserving subjects of compassion).

Chauka Please Tell Us the Time is a collaboration between Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani and Dutch-Iranian filmmaker Arash Kamali Sarvestani. Behrouz Boochani – detained in the Regional Processing Centre on Manus Island for over four years – shot the film footage from inside the immigration detention centre where he was held. The film reveals the day-to-day life and the violent and inhumane conditions within the centre. Chauka refers to a bird that is unique to Manus Island and is a symbol that Manusians regard with deep pride. It is also the name given to the detention centre’s solitary confinement unit